In the US, cash in circulation grew 42% between 2007 and 2012 (Credit: Getty Images)
Source: www.bbc.com
Read the entire article on bbc.com — It’s tempting to forecast the demise of cash. In fact, people have been predicting the end for physical money for nearly 60 years. With the rise of credit cards, contactless payments and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin the death knells have only gotten louder.
The Netherlands is an interesting case study to look at more closely, because their retail sector has recently embraced card payments in a big way. There are now 1,400 supermarkets in the Netherlands with registers that don’t accept cash.
In the UK, half the transactions by consumers in 2013 were with cash
As a result, card payments in the Netherlands have been growing by about 7 to 8% annually over the past few years. And yet, cash is still king. In 2012, there were 2.7 billion card payments, but an estimated 3.5 to 4 billion payments were made with cash. “Even in supermarkets which all accept debit cards, cash is still used heavily,” Jonker says. “For the time being we think cash will keep on having an important role.”
Studies of other nations tie in with these finding